Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, generator, gearbox, nacelle, and one or more rotor blades. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy of wind using known airfoil principles. The rotor blades transmit the kinetic energy in the form of rotational energy so as to turn a shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy that may be deployed to a utility grid.
Rotor blades are typically manufactured at locations that are separate from the locations where the wind turbines will be constructed. Thus, an assembled rotor blade (or portion thereof) may require transporting to the construction location. Further, in many cases, transportation of a rotor blade to a construction site requires both marine transport across a body of water and land transport across land. Marine transport may occur in a suitable transport ship, while land transport may occur in a truck on a road or in a train on a railroad.
Typically, various shipping fixtures are utilized during transportation of a rotor blade to contain, secure and protect the rotor blade. For example, one shipping fixture may contain, secure and protect a tip portion of a rotor blade, while another may contain, secure and protect a root portion of that rotor blade. However, currently known shipping fixtures have a variety of disadvantages. In particular, different shipping fixtures are currently required for marine transport versus land transport. Marine transport shipping fixtures must generally be capable of stacking, to allow for columns of shipping fixtures containing rotor blades to be provided on the ships and transported. Stacking allows for efficient and cost-effective use of space on the ships, but requires that the fixtures have additional reinforcement and larger sizes to handle increased loads due to stacking. Land transport shipping fixtures, on the other hand, do not require stacking capability but must be relatively small and lightweight to provide ease of movement onto and off of trucks and/or trains.
Thus, during transportation of a rotor blade across both marine and land environments, multiple fixture changes must be made. For example, a rotor blade may require a land transport shipping fixture for land transportation to a ship, a separate marine transport shipping fixture for transporting on the ship, and a separate land transport shipping fixture for land transportation from the ship. The use of these multiple separate shipping fixtures increases the time, cost, and amount of equipment required for shipping of rotor blades, and additionally increases the risk of damage to the rotor blades during changing of the rotor blades from land fixtures to marine fixtures, and vice versa.
Accordingly, an improved shipping fixture and method for transporting one or more rotor blades is desired in the art. In particular, a shipping fixture and method that are optimized for use in both land transportation and marine transportation of a rotor blade would be advantageous.